Why should your state pass DNA Arrestee Testing Laws?

Every day innocent people needlessly become victims of violent crimes. Most of these are committed by repeat offenders. By passing state legislation that enables law enforcement to collect DNA from felony arrestees, at the same time as fingerprints, your state can catch criminals sooner. That means you can prevent most of these crimes, save more lives, and provide more protection to the innocent.

Katie Sepich

Katie Sepich was a vivacious 22-year-old graduate student at New Mexico State University. In August 2003, she was brutally attacked just outside her home. She was raped, strangled, her body set on fire, and abandoned at an old dump site.

Samantha Runnion

Bonnie Craig

Bonnie Craig was an intelligent 18-year-old freshman at the University of Alaska Anchorage. In September 1994, Craig was abducted on her way to class. That same afternoon, Craig's lifeless body was found floating in a creek.

Debbie Smith

Announcements

Federal Katie's Law Grant Enacted

In January 2013, Congress acted decisively to create a grant to encourage states to pass arrestee DNA laws. The new grant, supported unanimously in the Senate and the House with a 2/3 majority (voice vote), will be available in 2014 to assist states with meeting start-up funding needs associated with arrestee DNA programs. The grant will only be available for a few years — the time to act is now.

Supreme Court Upholds “Katie’s Law”

On June 3, 2013, the US Supreme Court upheld “Katie’s Law” denying a challenge that laws to require DNA upon arrest were a violation of fourth Amendment rights. In calling the case, “perhaps the most important criminal procedure case this Court has heard in decades,” the justices stated that “DNA is like fingerprinting and photographing, a legitimate police booking procedure that is reasonable under the fourth Amendment”. Maryland v. King No 12-207.

VIEW VIDEO

Your next three minutes can save lives. Watch now. Get in depth information about the need for taking DNA upon felony arrest and learn how the DNA database system has been specifically designed to protect privacy, as it is used to solve crimes, prevent crimes and exonerate the innocent.

28 STATES HAVE PASSED LAW

All states require DNA for felony convictions, but most states have begun considering bills to require DNA for felony arrests. 28 State Legislators have already enacted such laws.